Time to take a look at the top 10 hitters in the Major Leagues for April 2007 by OPS:

#1 Barry Bonds (.356/.536/.814) - 1.349

Barry is the easy choice for NL MVP as of right now. He's almost single handily keeping the Giants' otherwise lackluster offense alive. Barry's not only putting up great #s but he's helping the team win, night in and night out. In the 7 games he's hit a home run in this year the Giants are 6-1. The #'s he's putting up so far this year are truly extraordinary.

Bonds incredible performances from 2001-2004 skew the perspective of the average fan. What Bonds has been able to do is not normal. For example Bonds' OBP this year of .536 is absolutely Godlike. There have been only 4 individual seasons over a .500 OBP since 1957 and they were Barry Bonds 2001, 2002, 2003, & 2004. His slugging percentage of .812 is similarly Godlike (and a great cause of that OBP being so high as opposing hitters and managers are so scared of his incredible hitting that they walk him at outrageous rates.) To try and put it in perspective there's only been 4 seasons over .800 in history! 2 of them are by Barry Bonds and the other 2 are by a fella named Babe Ruth. Oh and Barry just missed in 2002 with a .799 slugging percentage.

Obviously it's a young season and it's quite presumptious to think that Bonds can keep up this incredible production all season at age 42 (and turning 43) but what he's doing is truly incredible. He is not just hanging on to break a career mark, he is dominating at a level that only he and Babe Ruth have ever reached.

It really makes me giggle a bit inside when others try to compare other hitters to Bonds. Pujols? Rodriguez? Yes these guys are great and they've had months where they were almost as good as Bonds but they've never put up anything close to a full season at Bonds highest level. There are only a few hitters that are the greats among the greats: Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Barry Bonds. Sure guys like Stan Musial were great and so are Pujols & Rodriguez but when it comes down to it, they just aren't at that superhuman level that Bonds is at. Last year Pujols hit at a career high .671 slugging percentage. Awesome. Tied for 61st all time for best single season mark. But hopefully you can see the difference there. It's not a small difference. It's the difference between true superhuman ability and just merely a great hitter. Rodriguez doesn't have a single season even in the top 100. The real argument for Rodriguez is his value compared to a replacement at his position (less of a strong argument now that he's a 3B instead of a SS.) But this is not really what I'm yammering about. I'm talking about hitting only, I don't care what position you play. A-Rod at his peak is not even close to the hitter that Bonds is at his.

#2 Alex Rodriguez (.355/.415/.882) - 1.297

I find it highly amusing that after all the hype for A-Rod's month of April and how it was perhaps the greatest April for any player ever that after a late month swoon he didn't even finish with the best April THIS season. No he was bested by a 42 year old God amongst men, Barry Bonds.

Then you take into account that all of A-Rod's homers weren't helping the Yankees win too many games. Sure he had 2 walk off homers but the Yanks are still sitting at dead last in the AL East.

I would be willing to be huge sums of money that unless Bonds gets injured (and at his age & with his knees that's a huge possibility) that Bonds will finish this season with a higher Avg, OBP, & Slg than A-Rod. Rodriguez may end up with more homers but that's only because he gets so many more at bats. Right now Rodriguez has 93 at bats compared to Bonds' 59.

One final lesson in Bonds outright superiority over Rodriguez:

Bonds: 23 walks 9 strikeouts.
Rodriguez: 23 strikeouts 9 walks.

And just to really get my point in here: Bonds is 42 years old!!#@$@?! This is just incredible.

3. Jim Thome (.340/.553/.680) - 1.233

Thome is drawing a huge amount of walks right now, even more than Bonds. His overall stats are looking almost Bondsian (although a .680 SLG doesn't quite cut it. Yah that's how ridiculous Bondsian really is.) Unfortunately for Thome he is battling injuries and is currently on the DL.

4. Vladimir Guerro (.366/.470/.695) - 1.165

Vlad's been putting up huge numbers for the Angels and is an early season candidate for MVP and right now with the Angels 15-11 record compared to A-Rod's Yankees sitting in last place I think he may have the advantage over Rodriguez. Buth Vlad and A-Rod are 31 years old. Vlad's been a consistently great hitter throughout his career but he's looking to take it to the next level this year. His current career high single season OPS was in 2000 when he was at 1.074 hitting .345 with a carer high 44 homers.

5. B.J. Upton (.365/.413/.689) - 1.102

Upton is only 22 years old and has never had more than 175 at bats in a season before. Is this great hitting a sign of things to come or an early season fluke? It will be interesting to see how his season pans out and whether the Devil Rays have a new all star on their hands in B.J. Upton.

6. Miguel Cabera (.360/.429/.663) - 1.091
7. Hanley Ramirez (.364/.462/.625) - 1.087

The Florida Marlins take the 6th & 7th positions with two rather promising young hitters. Cabrera is only 24 and has had 3 really good years from 2004 through 2006 and he's looking to take his OPS over 1.000 for the first time this year. Ramirez was last year's rookie of the year and is only 23 years old. So far he has not suffered from any sort of sophomore jinx, in fact he's greatly improving on his rookie year numbers.

8. Aaron Rowand (.378/.462/.622) - 1.084

Rowand's best season to date was 2004. In '04 he hit .310 with 24 homers and had a .905 OPS. Last year he hit only .262 with 12 home runs. Clearly this year he's hitting at a much higher level so far. It would be very surprising if he can keep up this level. I would expect that this is somewhat of an early season fluke and he'll go back down to earth a bit as the year progresses.

9. Carlos Beltran (.356/.412/.663) - 1.076

Given sportswriters tendency towards voting for players on winning teams, Beltran may actually be the MVP front runner right now in the NL especially considering he plays in New York. He's had a great year so far and I think the Mets are the best team in baseball. The one thing hurting his MVP chances right now is that he and Jose Reyes will be splitting the Mets vote. Reyes would be on this list if we went down a few more slots (he's 14th.)

10. Kelly Johnson (.326/.473/.593) - 1.066

The Braves are winning and a big part of that has been Kelly Johnson. He's only 25 years old. Last year as a rookie in 290 at bats he only hit .241 and had a .731 OPS. Is this the real Kelly Johnson? Or is it last year's .241 hitter? Most likely something in between. But we'll have to let the season play out. Certainly the Braves have to be very pleased with the production from their second baseman.